A Laoseng minority woman prepares rice for cooking outside her home in the remote and roadless village of Ban Phouxoum, Phongsaly province, Lao PDR. Ban Phouxoum is situated along the Nam Ou river (a tributary of the Mekong) and has been temporarily relocated due to the construction of the Nam Ou Cascade Hydropower Project Dam 6. The Nam Ou river connects small riverside villages and provides the rural population with food for fishing. But this river and others like it, that are the lifeline of rural communities and local economies are being blocked, diverted and decimated by dams. The Lao government hopes to transform the country into 'the battery of Southeast Asia' by exporting the power to Thailand and Vietnam.
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